1st January 2025
National
A day widely observed throughout the UK, as is New Year’s Eve the preceding night, and especially in Scotland, where bagpipes, haggis and first footing are widespread. It is customary to make New Year’s Resolutions at this time.
27th January 2025
National
This is a remembrance day for all the different categories of people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis during the second World War (1939-45). It aims to keep fresh in the mind the memory of those who suffered and died at that period, and to help ensure that no such atrocity happens again. The date was chosen as the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, but for many it is appropriate to remember others who have been victims of subsequent acts of genocide elsewhere in the world.
Holocaust Memorial Day remembers especially the millions of people who were killed in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. More than a million people were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland, during World War Two. The majority were Jews and the former extermination camp has become the world’s largest Jewish cemetery; but the site was also the death place for many people who did not fit into the Nazis’ view of their world: Poles, lesbians, homosexuals and the disabled were amongst those killed here.
Many of the concentration camps set up by the Nazis in World War Two were razed to the ground towards the end of the war, but this Nazi German death camp was liberated before it was completely destroyed. Now it has become a museum, and a focus for people of all nations, and especially for the young, to visit as pilgrims.
The Holocaust began in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. It ended in 1945 when Allied powers defeated the Nazis. Jewish people were excluded from public life on September 15th, 1935 when the Nuremberg Laws were issued. These laws also stripped German Jews of their citizenship and their right to marry Germans.
Kristallnacht occurred on November 9th and 10th, 1938. Nazis pillaged, burned synagogues, broke windows of Jewish-owned businesses, and attacked Jewish people in Austria and Germany. 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. In prison camps, prisoners were forced to do hard physical labour. Torture and death within concentration camps were common and frequent.
Once World War II began, the Nazis ordered all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing so they could be easily targeted. Jews were forced to live in specific areas of the city called ghettos after the beginning of World War ll. In the larger ghettos, up to 1,000 people a day were picked up and brought by train to concentration camps or death camps.
11 million people were killed during the Holocaust (1.1 million children). 6 million of those victims were Jewish. Other groups targeted by the Nazis were Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, disabled people, and Roma. Two-thirds of Jewish people living in Europe at the time of World War II were killed by Nazis.
1st March 2025
National
Anniversary of the death of St David, the patron saint of Wales, who lived in the 6th century CE. As monk, abbot and bishop he helped to spread Christianity among the Celtic tribes of western Britain.
17th March 2025
National
This is a day celebrated in honour of the patron saint of Ireland, who lived in Britain in the 4th century CE. After his escape from being held hostage in Ireland, he became a priest and returned there to evangelise. His symbol is the shamrock, sprigs of which are worn on this day. Parades are held in Dublin and elsewhere, often of a secular nature.
23rd April 2025
National
St George is the patron saint of England. His particular significance to England is not clear since he lived and died in the Middle East as a martyr for his Christian faith, but it is possible that his popularity grew after the Crusades, when his red cross on a white background was adopted as the symbol of the English Crusaders.
9th November 2025
National
The Sunday nearest to Armistice Day, devoted to remembering the dead of the two World wars and subsequent wars.
30th November 2025
National
Andrew, the apostle, was brother of St Peter, and the first disciple to follow Jesus. He was crucified at Patras in Greece and has been patron saint of Scotland since the 8th century. In the Anglican communion he is associated with missionary activity.
10th December 2024
10th December 2025
National
In 1948 The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms.’
31st December 2024
31st December 2025
National
A celebration widely observed throughout the UK, and especially in Scotland, where bagpipes, haggis and first footing are widespread. Clearing one’s debts, cleaning the house, welcoming guests and strangers and a host of other traditions feature at this time.